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Free League publishing will soon be releasing a new tabletop roleplaying game based on one of fantasy literature’s most iconic characters: Elric of Melniboné. The upcoming game will be entitled Legends of Stormbringer: Roleplaying in the World of Elric and will feature the locations, characters and lore from the popular fantasy novels by British author Michael Moorcock.
While additional details are still being kept under wraps, we do know it will be launching sometime in 2027 (likely via crowdfunding), and will use the Dragonbane TTRPG rule set. It will also be overseen by veteran game designer Richard Watts, who worked on several previous RPG adaptations featuring the legendary albino swordsmen. Below, we call up the Lords of Chaos and summon up everything we know so far.
What will be included in the Legends of Stormbringer RPG?
So far information is limited in terms of what the game will consist of or even when we expect to get our hands on it. In a press release, Free League Publishing CEO Tomas Härenstam notes simply: “This has been in the works for several months and we’re thrilled to finally share the news. We are honored to bring Elric and the Young Kingdoms to the tabletop once more.”
The press release also notes that “the game will feature the same accessible, dynamic, and deadly approach that has made Dragonbane one of our most celebrated titles.”
It’s likely we’ll learn more from Free League in the coming months.
Who is Elric of Melniboné?
Elric (also known as “The White Wolf”) is one of the most iconic and influential characters in fantasy literature, particularly within the sword and sorcery sub-genre. A powerful magic user and skilled warrior, he is also the Emperor of the crumbling island civilization of Melniboné, which once dominated much of the world (now known as the Young Kingdoms) due to their powerful military and use of dragons. Unlike his cold, sadistic kin, however, Elric is an albino born with a conscience and a frail physique, requiring both sorcery and rare, highly addictive drugs to maintain his existence.
His fate is also irrevocably tied to Stormbringer, a sentient, black runesword that drinks the souls of its victims to provide Elric with additional vitality. As a somewhat unwitting servant of the Chaos Lord Arioch, Elric is the quintessential anti-hero, struggling with his own morality and mortality. He is often presented as a doomed wanderer who destroys the very things he seeks to protect. He is also one of countless Eternal Champions who exist throughout the multiverse and are caught up in the endlless struggle between the forces of Law and Chaos.
In the real world, Elric was created by legendary, award-winning British fantasy and science fiction author, Michael Moorcock, who introduced the character in the 1961 novella The Dreaming City. Moorcock intentionally designing Elric to subvert the muscle-bound sword and sorcery tropes popularized by characters like Conan the Barbarian. Elric’s complex history has sincce been chronicled in over a dozen landmark novels, including Elric of Melniboné (1972), The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976) and Stormbringer (1965). In 2022, these books were re-released in several omnibuses known as The Elric Saga.
Beyond his literary roots, Elric has also established a presence across comic books, music and other media. In 1972 he appeared in an issue Marvel comics Conan the Barbarian and over the years made numerous other comic book appearances for publishers including, Dark Horse, BOOM! Studios most recently Titan Comics. Over the years, there have also been numerous attempts to adapt Elric for both film, television and video games, although none of these projects has ever panned out.
Famously, Elric also inspired a number of iconic 70s rock bands, including Deep Purple’s Stormbringer album and Blue Öyster Cult’s “Black Blade.”
What other Elric RPGs have been published?
When it comes to tabletop RPGs, Elric and Stormbringer also have a fairly significant legacy. The character first appeared in the 1980 AD&D sourcebook Deities & Demigods. Publisher Chaosium, however, already had an RPG series in the works based on the character, so Elric was removed from future AD&D printings.
As a result, Elric’s first official TTRPG appearance was in Chaosium’s 1981 Stormbringer RPG ,which utilized the Basic Role-playing (BRP) system. Chaosium released four more editions of Stormbringer before significantly overhauling the mechanics in 1993 with the release of a new RPG entitled Elric!. This version streamlined the BRP engine and reworked the magic system to be more balanced and accessible, with resulting game being rebranded again as Stormbringer 5th Edition in 2001. During this same era, Chaosium also released another standalone game entitled, Dragon Lords of Melniboné which uses a standard D20 system.
In the early 2000s, Chaosium and Michael Moorcock butted heads about the RPG and as a result the license moved to Mongoose Publishing, which released Elric of Melniboné in 2007 and a second edition in 2010. These versions were built on the RuneQuest engine (which ironically, was owned by Chaosium). Outside of English-language releases, the French RPG Mournblade (2012) also used the official license (although it was never translated into any other languages).
More recently, Elric served as the inspiration for the Merry Mushmen’s indie TTRPG Black Sword Hack while in May 2026, Goodman Games announced they would also be publishing an Elric RPG for Dungeon Crawl Classics, which is also slated for release sometime in 2027 and will first launch on BackerKit.
What is the Dragonbane RPG?
Dragonbane is a fantasy TTRPG published by Free League. First released in 2023 it is based on the original Swedish game Drakar och Demoner (literally translated as “Dragons and Demons”), which was first published in 1982 and is widely considered Scandinavia’s first and arguably most popular TTRPG, with the game far outselling Dungeons & Dragons.
In its earliest editions, Drakar och Demoner was essentially a Swedish-language adaptation of Chaosium’s Basic Role‑Playing system, with character stats and skills listed as percentages and players trying to roll equal to or under their skill value. Over the years, the system was further refined and moved between several different publishers, eventually transitioning towards a d20-based system and being renamed as Ruin Masters.
In 2021, Free League bought the rights to the game and made significant rules updates, in addition to releasing an English version under the name Dragonbane. Like D&D, you build a character by selecting a species (such as human, dwarf, elf, halfling, wolfkin or the more unusual duck humanoids known as mallards) and a profession (fighter, mage, hunter, thief, artisan, merchant, mariner, scholar, etc.). Your profession determines your skills and a starting Heroic Ability. You are, however, not locked into a strict class progression and can develop your character in any direction. Character advancement also emphasizes skills rather than traditional levels.
In terms of gameplay, the core mechanic is a roll-under D20 system. Each skill has a target value (typically between 1 and 18) and you succeed on a roll of that number or lower. Rolling a natural 1 is a critical success (“dragon”), and a natural 20 is a critical fail (“demon”). Combat is fairly simple (with just one action per turn) and initiative is handled via a deck of cards, which are numbered from one to ten, with a new card drawn each round.
Why we’re excited for the Legends of Stormbringer RPG
- The return of a fantasy legend: Elric remains both an icon of fantasy literature and tabletop RPGs, so it’s amazing to see the legendary anti-hero back in the spotlight 65 years after he was first created.
- The perfect system: While Elric and Stormbringer have appeared in multiple TTRPG rules over the years, Dragonbane’s streamlined mechanics feels like a natural fit for the character and setting.
- Free League’s approach: The Swedish publisher produces some absolutely gorgeous books, with the art often being as much of a draw as the mechanics, so it’ll be interesting to see what they do in terms of the overall look and feel of the game.
- The design team: The inclusion of Richard Watts, who has been instrumental in developing numerous Elric game products over the years, feels like a smart move on Free League’s part and a nod to Elric’s TTRPG legacy.
Final Thoughts
The return of Elric to the tabletop feels like something that’s long overdue. And with the license now in the hands of Free League and being adapted for Dragonbane, it feels like a project worthy of the White Wolf himself.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on this story in the days ahead and will update this page with new information on the Legends of Stormbringer RPG as they’re made available.